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*The History of the First Overall Pick: Part 1 - NylarthePhoenix - 03-26-2024
Ideally, the first overall pick in a draft is the ultimate consolation prize. Your team was the worst in the league last year, so you get to hand pick the best player from the newest class of aspiring hall of fame members. The problem with this idea is that finding the best member of a class is often a much harder task than what it appears. So many variables need to be answered. Can what this player is doing in the DSFL translate to the ISFL? Do we draft for need or draft for talent? Will this player continue to improve, or have they reached their ceiling? Will they flounder or thrive in our system? Can we get more value by trading our pick away, or should we stand pat? An ISFL GM often has so many questions to answer about what their draft day decision should be. They can do all of the scouting, analysis, interviews, or strategizing they want, but often their decision comes down to going with their gut and hoping for the best results. This applies to every draft pick to some extent, but a first overall draft pick especially. The first overall draft pick is sports’ biggest high-risk high-reward opportunity. If you select correctly, you will have received a face of your franchise for an entire generation. Select incorrectly, and you will set your team back seasons with your pick entering the halls of history as an all-time bust. To celebrate the history of the first overall pick with the 47th just being submitted, we’re going to discuss every single one in the history of the ISFL. We’ll go over each player’s career and decide whether or not their team chose correctly. In Part 1, we will go over Seasons 1 - 5.
S1 - The Orange County Otters select J.J. Reigns, DT, Nebraska
In the inaugural season of the National Simulated Football League, the Orange County Otters won the 6-team lottery for the first ever draft pick, and used it to select the first ever defensive tackle to declare for the NSFL draft, Cornhusker product J.J. Reigns.
The hype around Reigns coming from a dominant Nebraska d-line was real, and for a season he lived up to it. In his rookie season, he was able to stand out, even in a sack-happy league. Reigns tallied 14 sacks, putting him in a three-way tie for second in the league in that statistic that year. Along with his 46 tackles, 4 of them for loss, Reigns was a key piece in the league’s best defense that year and was named to the pro bowl for his efforts. Unfortunately, Reigns failed to replicate those results for the rest of his career. His sophomore season was still respectable, 9 sacks with 41 tackles, but failed to stand out amongst other defensive linemen in the league who were recording around double those numbers or more. By his third season with the Otters, Reigns was losing out on his starting role as more talent entered the league and his draftmates out-paced him. He posted only five paltry sacks that year.
It was clear that Reigns needed some sort of change to regain his old form and reach his potential, but no one could have seen a change like this coming. During the offseason, it was announced that Reigns would be position swapping from defensive tackle to wide receiver for Season 4. Position swaps were common, but defensive tackle and wide receiver were two widely different positions. Supporters argued that Reigns had the strength and just enough speed to be a decent red-zone threat, but actually catching the ball, something Reigns had never done at even the collegiate level, was seen as another issue entirely.
Season 4 came, and Reigns surprised everyone. Not only was the former defensive tackle surviving as a wide receiver, but he was thriving as well. As WR3 for one of the best passing attacks the league has ever seen, Reigns caught 81 balls for 832 yards and 5 touchdowns. These were hardly league-breaking stats, but Reigns proved to be an excellent complement for his fellow receivers, Robert Phelps and the legendary Bradley Westfield. The highlight of the season, however, had to be when he caught 9 balls for 58 yards to help win the Orange County Otters their first of many Ultimuses.
Unfortunately for J.J. Reigns, the magic was not to last. He struggled to match his prior performance in Season 5 and was traded by the Otters mid-season to the Colorado Yeti in exchange for running back Thomas Mango, a player who would only record one rushing attempt in his NSFL career. Going from the best team in the league to one of the worst may have had an effect on Reigns’s play, but regardless, he only tallied 356 yards and 2 touchdowns split across the two teams that season. Season 6 was disastrous for Reigns as he only saw the field to catch 3 balls for 20 yards in service to a Yeti team that went winless all season. He was allowed to enter free agency at season’s end as he watched his former Otters team win their second and third Ultimus without him. He was able to sign a one-year deal with an up and coming New Orleans Second Line team that was still struggling to win games post-relocation from Las Vegas. Perhaps playing alongside two talented wide receivers again, this time with Dustin Evans and Charlie Law, allowed Reigns to regain a bit of his form after playing in the Colorado Hellhole, because this season would be Reigns’s best since his first season at the position, though that isn’t saying much. He posted a decent statline of 64 catches for 495 yards and 3 touchdowns. Unfortunately for Reigns, this was not enough to convince NOLA, or anyone else for that matter, to give him a shot at an eighth season, and he was forced to retire.
The Season 1 draft class is unique because it is the only draft that has or will ever happen where every team needs every position, aside from the two pre-assigned players each franchise was given. As the league was brand new, scouting departments and analytics were nowhere near as in depth as they are today, almost half a century later. These two factors led the future hall of fame members of the class to be drafted much later than they should have. For example, the undisputed best defensive tackle of the class, Hall of Fame member Dan Miller, wasn’t drafted until the fifteenth round, 87 picks after Reigns, who only spent three seasons at the position. There were so many future Hall of Fame members in this class that it’s impossible to pick one to replace Reigns as first overall, but the second overall pick, wide receiver Josh Garden, would make it to the Hall of Fame with names like Reg Mackworthy, Mike Boss, Boss Tweed, Bradley Westfield, Antoine Delacour, Fuego Wozy, and Dan Miller just being a few more examples. For their part, Orange County undoubtedly missed with the first draft pick in ISFL history, but they would make up for it by drafting four future Hall of Fame members in later rounds, the aforementioned Westfield, linebackers Ian Bavitz and Angus Winchester, and of course, quarterback Mike Boss.
Despite being the ISFL’s first draft pick ever, J.J. Reigns cannot be considered one of the league’s legends. You won’t find his name on any Top 10 Career stat lists and his name won’t be hailed amongst the heroes of Orange County, but he was the first defensive tackle in the history of the draft, and paved the way for more wild position changes to be possible for the rest of league history. I think those things are worth remembering him for.
S2 - The Yellowknife Wraiths select Dermot Lavelle, CB, Arizona
In the league’s brief era before the creation of the DSFL, the NSFL allowed draft prospects to join a team temporarily via waiver claim, in a manner identical to the system in place in the modern DSFL. This allowed a league that was still attempting to find its footing to bring in more talent that may have been previously apprehensive towards joining a brand new league. Dermot Lavelle, a cornerback prospect from the University of Arizona, was not one of these players. Lavelle had every intention of joining the league’s first draft class, but was unable to do so due to a paperwork mixup that he blamed his agent for. Thus, Lavelle was one of the first players to take advantage of the waiver system to temporarily join a team and become a member of the following season’s draft class. Lavelle wasn’t on the waiver wire for long, before his agent informed him he had been claimed. He would be leaving the sweltering heat of Tucson, Arizona to travel 2712 miles north to the frozen land of Yellowknife.
Upon joining the team at the beginning of the season, Dermot Lavelle was slotted into the Wraith’s CB2 role behind draftee Dirk Cutter, but was able to quickly become one of the league’s early stars. His 4 interceptions and 18 pass deflections both tied for second best across the league and saw him named to the starting pro bowl roster, with Cutter also named to the reserve roster. Lavelle quickly rose up draft boards and was considered one of the top prospects available. But as Lavelle’s star rose, his waiver contract with Yellowknife expired at the end of the season. If the Wraiths wanted their newfound star to remain on the team, they would need to draft him. With their 8-6 record, they received the fifth overall pick, limiting their chances of landing Lavelle, but the Wraith's coaching staff was convinced that Lavelle was not just a star, but a generational talent they could not afford to let go. The Wraith’s new general manager, Spike Crown, approached the Season 2 draft with one goal in mind: keep Dermot Lavelle in Yellowknife by any means necessary.
Crown would make his first move towards this goal a few days before the draft by forming one of the league’s first blockbusters with one of the NSFL’s new expansion teams, the Las Vegas Legion. The Legion, fresh off of their expansion draft, held the second overall pick, but was more interested in acquiring proven talent to round out their brand new roster. They were willing to part with the pick, along with a pair of seconds, a fourth, and a player to be named later, but it would cost the Wraiths four of their players, including future Hall of Fame wide receiver Alexander LeClaire and Pro Bowl lineman D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Mark Ramrio, and their sixth round pick. The cost was steep, but worth it in the mind of Crown if it meant keeping Lavelle in town. Now with the second and fifth overall picks in their hand, only one team could possibly keep Crown from fulfilling his goal: the other expansion team, the Philadelphia Liberty. However, this was still unacceptable for Crown. He had sunk too many resources into the trade with the Legion to have any risk at losing Lavelle. He needed the first overall pick. At the last second on draft day, Crown was able to trade up with the Liberty from second to first in exchange for their third and fifth round picks. After two trades, Dermot Lavelle would officially remain a Wraith, but it had cost them a king's ransom. If missing on a first overall pick is terrible normally, missing on a first overall pick you traded four players, one of them a future hall of famer, and four picks for would be catastrophic. Spike Crown had bet the future of the franchise, and essentially his job, on the hope that Lavelle would not just be a good player, but one of the faces of the entire league. They needed Lavelle to shine like few stars ever would, and shine he did.
Dermot Lavelle would spend his entire, 13-season long career in Yellowknife. Across that time, Lavelle would establish himself as the league’s all-time ball hawk. He intercepted 57 passes, a career record that stands unmatched to this day. Noteworthy seasons where he tied for or led all cornerbacks in interceptions were Seasons 5, 7, and 9, the last of which was his greatest single season metric of 8 interceptions. Lavelle was in the top 5 for interceptions across all cornerbacks in all but two of his seasons, and averaged 4.38 interceptions per season. This consistency is what truly cements him in the career interceptions record, a record that many believe will never be broken. His record of 57 stands a whole 11 interceptions higher than the player in second place. To put in perspective how commanding this lead is, the player with the most career interceptions active today is Colorado Yeti free safety, Cross-Erickson. His 41 interceptions through a career that just finished its 13th season is good enough to tie for 6th place all-time, and to put his interceptions per season rate at 3.15. If Erickson were to catch up to Lavelle, he would need to match his yearly average for 6 additional seasons.
Once Lavelle had the ball in his hands, he made the most of it. He returned 10 of his interceptions for pick-sixes, another all-time record. When Lavelle couldn’t pick the ball off, he could always deflect it away, something he did 249 times across his career, good for 7th place on the all-time leaderboard. He relied on this especially during the twilight of his career. Across his final five seasons, he ranked second amongst all cornerbacks in this statistic four times in a row, and led them all in his final season.
It didn’t take long for the Wraith’s coaching staff to realize just how right they were about Dermot Lavelle, and quickly wanted him on the field as much as possible. Starting in Season 3, Lavelle would take over kick return and punt return duties for the team. Not satisfied with setting records for one position, Lavelle still holds the record for punt return yards, 3452, to this day, with his record for kick return yards, 9093, only beaten by his son, Dermot Lavelle Jr. Lavelle Sr. also holds records for kick return touchdowns, 5, and punt return touchdowns, 10. Lavelle had even more to give. For a few seasons in the early age of the league, players were allowed to line up on both sides of the ball. This allowed the Wraiths to give Lavelle reps as a wide receiver. While Lavelle failed to set records at this position, he proved to be a solid player offensively as well, including a season where he caught for 618 yards and 6 touchdowns. Lavelle’s greatest game, perhaps, came Week 13, Season 10 in a game on the road in Colorado. Offensively, he was solid, catching 2 balls for 31 yards. Defensively, he would bring down one of the six interceptions he would register that season. These two stats on their own would make this a very good game for Lavelle, but his special teams performance would make this game one of the best single-player performances of all time. With 3:08 to go in the third quarter, Lavelle watched Yeti kick returner Howard MIller return a kick 104 yards out of his endzone for a touchdown, putting the Yeti up 31-20. Knowing his team needed a spark to get back in the game, Lavelle upstaged Miller by returning the very next kickoff from the deepest part of his endzone 108 yards for a touchdown. 108 yards is the longest possible kick return, and has happened only 34 times in the history of the league. The Wraiths would ultimately fail to complete the comeback, but Lavelle’s performance must be one of the greatest across all three phases of the ball combined in league history.
With all that in mind, it’s hard to envision the Wraiths taking anyone over Dermot Lavelle in the Season 2 draft, even if every first round pick from this draft made the pro bowl. Not even the emergence of other Hall of Fame members later in the draft, such as fellow cornerback Marc Spector, eventual running backs Owen Taylor and Darren Smallwood, tight end Paul Dimirio, or everything-man Avon Blocksdale could have sown any doubt in the heart of Wraiths nation that they didn’t chose their man correctly. Dermot Lavelle would win one Ultimus Bowl with the Yellowknife Wraiths in Season 8, would be named Defensive Player of the Year in Season 9, and would be elected to the Pro Bowl in each of his 13 seasons. Lavelle retired after Season 13, and was unanimously voted into the Hall of Fame as part of the class of Season 17.
S3 - The Colorado Yeti select, Antonio Sandoval, OL, Notre Dame
Season 3 marked the creation of the Developmental Simulation Football League, meaning Season 2 would be the final year in which NSFL teams could use the waiver system to temporarily add prospects to their roster. During the season, the Colorado Yeti did just that by claiming the much hyped FIghting Irish product, Antonio Sandoval, who many people believed had the potential to play on either side of the line once he arrived in the league. In his waiver season with the Yeti, Sandoval played offensive guard and struggled to prevent sacks, allowing 7 of them in 12 games, but was slightly above league average in pancakes, recording 30. Perhaps the Yeti believed they could help Sandoval improve upon this performance. Maybe they were swayed by how well the Dermot Lavelle situation was working out for Yellowknife, or maybe it was as simple as the Yeti believing that Sandoval was indeed the strongest player in the draft. Regardless of the reason, like the Wraiths before them, the Yeti wanted to keep their waiver claim in town by drafting him.
After an 8-6 season that saw them lose a three-way tie for a playoff spot, the Yeti were assigned the 4th overall pick, but they were looking to trade up to secure their star. They would find a trade partner in the reigning Ultimus champions, the Arizona Outlaws, who had received the first overall pick from the Las Vegas Legion an offseason prior in an expansion draft trade that saw a pair of firsts and a third get sent to Arizona for a trio of players. On draft day, the two teams reached an agreement that saw the Yeti trade up from 4th to 1st for the cost of their 2nd round pick. The price to move up three draft spots seemed steep to some, but the Yeti believed that acquiring their man was worth the cost and selected Sandoval with the first overall pick.
Antonio Sandoval would play his entire ten season career with the team that drafted him, the Colorado Yeti, but he would play only his waiver and rookie seasons on the offensive line. After Season 3, where Sandoval’s stats increased but remained around league average, the Yeti began to prepare him to play on the other side of the line as a defensive end. This would be where he would play the rest of his career. In his first season as a defensive end, Season 4, Sandoval immediately had a much bigger impact on the field. He recorded 16 tackles for loss that season, good to tie for second in the league. However, his lack of sacks prevented him from reaching the pro bowl as he only recorded one throughout the season. The rest of his career progressed much in the same way, producing numbers that were solid, especially when it came to his tackles for loss stat, but never enough to win any individual awards. Even in Season 8, when he recorded 8 sacks, he only recorded the same amount of tackles for loss and missed out on the pro bowl again. Just when it seemed like Sandoval would go his entire career without any individual recognition, this finally changed for him in Season 10. He recorded a career high 9 sacks and 13 tackles for loss, earning him not only his first and only pro bowl, but the Defensive Lineman of the Year award. The season afterwards, his stats would tank down to 0 tackles for loss and 2 sacks and he would retire at season's end. He got his individual recognition at the last possible moment. Sandoval would finish his career with 35 sacks and, far more impressively, 72 tackles for loss. Today, he ranks 31st all-time in the latter metric.
While Antonio Sandoval was undeniably a solid starter for the Colorado Yeti throughout his career, it is also undeniable that they could have drafted a better player here. Three future Hall of Fame players were available in this draft: cornerback Benson Bailey, linebacker Julian O'Sullivan, and wide receiver Trey Willie. Any of those players would have become incredible Yetis. However, one quality that Sandoval had was loyalty as he spent his entire decade-long career in the Rocky Mountains, and that is a quality that Yeti fans would come to appreciate. You see, the Yeti faithful who watched the Season 3 draft and the executives that submitted Sandoval’s pick didn’t know it yet but they had a lot of rough, and I mean rough, seasons ahead of them. Plenty of other players they could have drafted here would have left in free agency during this period from Season 3 to Season 7, where the Yeti won 6 games in 5 seasons, two of those seasons being winless, but not Antonio Sandoval. He was a beacon of hope for Yeti fans every Sunday during that half-decade stretch that one day things would get better, and eventually they did. Antonio Sandoval may have failed to get even a single vote into the ISFL Hall of Fame, but he was an inaugural member of the Colorado Yeti Ring of Honor and won over the hearts of every Yeti fan that watched him play. If the Yeti had the option to do this pick over again, I bet they would have a hard time prying themselves away from Antonio Sandoval.
S4 - The Arizona Outlaws select, Noah Goodson, LB, Portland Pythons, NC State
In the same trade that got the Arizona Outlaws the first overall pick in Season 3, they also received the Las Vegas Legion’s 1st round pick in Season 4. The Legion finished Season 3 with a 2-12 record, seeing them finish at the bottom of the league for a second straight year. Thus, the Arizona Outlaws would have the first overall pick for the second straight season, coming off of their third straight Ultimus win. This draft class would be the smallest in league history with only 17 players drafted, but that’s not to say that it was devoid of blue chip prospects worthy of a first overall pick. The decision largely revolved around two players. First was Noah Goodson, a linebacker commonly considered to be a generational prospect out of NC State. He was the first pick ever made in the DSFL to the Portland Pythons where he largely lived up to the hype and finished 3rd in the league in tackles. While many considered Goodson to be the clear cut candidate for the first overall pick, a safety from Notre Dame named Blackford Oakes gave the Outlaws cause for pause. Oakes was a ball hawk safety that many also believed could be a star in the making. The big problem with Oakes, however, was the fact that he did not play a single down in the DSFL. Oakes was not a part of the S3 DSFL draft and while he tried to join the new developmental league via waivers, and was claimed by the Tijuana Luchadores, a paperwork error prevented him from doing so. Perhaps it was Oakes’s lack of professional experience that cemented Goodson as the pick in the mind of the Outlaws as the previous two first overall picks, Dermot Lavelle and Antonio Sandoval, spent either the entire or the majority of the prior season on an NSFL team. The Outlaws mind was made up and this time on draft day they would turn down all offers to trade out of the pick and use it to add Noah Goodson to their linebacking core that already featured Season 2’s linebacker of the year and two time pro bowler Harrif Ernston.
Goodson would immediately make the jump from the Pythons to the Outlaws in Season 4. Despite being part of a crowded linebacker room, Goodson was able to put up impressive stats, including 94 tackles, 9 sacks, and 9 passes deflected. Combining this with Ernston’s 17 sacks and Luke Luechly’s 11 sacks and 9 passes deflected gave the Outlaws an impressive linebacker room that season, even if they failed to win their 4th consecutive Ultimus. Individually, Goodson’s statline was impressive enough to share the Defensive Rookie of the Year award with Blackford Oakes, becoming the first former first overall pick to win his rookie of the year award, even if he shared it with essentially his only competitor.
Unfortunately for Goodson, he would experience the infamous sophomore slump in Season 5. He would have his numbers slip to 76 tackles, 3 sacks, and 4 passes deflected. He would bring in a pair of interceptions, but Season 5 was certainly a forgettable one for Goodson. Many believed that Goodson was capable of rebounding from this season, but the Outlaws were either unconvinced or felt more secure with having Ernston, who was named Defensive Player of the Year that season, and Luechly in their defense and spending elsewhere. The Outlaws elected to place their former first overall draft pick on the trading block and were able to reach an offseason deal with the Baltimore Hawks. They would ship Noah Goodson and their Season 7 2nd round pick to the Hawks in exchange for their 2nd round pick in the upcoming Season 6 draft and their 3rd round pick in the Season 7 draft. The Outlaws also included the condition that if Goodson reached a contract extension with the Hawks that lasted 2 seasons or longer, the Hawks would also send the Outlaws their Season 8 3rd round pick, a condition that would indeed happen. Now with a fresh start on a new team, many hoped that Goodson would realize his potential of being a generational linebacker.
Noah Goodson’s production would immediately increase in his first season with the Baltimore Hawks. His 109 tackles, 4 for loss, 9 sacks, and 7 passes deflected saw him get named to the pro bowl for the first time in his career. He would spend five seasons with the Hawks, his versatility allowing him to play in a variety of roles. After being a well-rounded linebacker in Season 6, he transitioned to being a pass rusher in Season 7, where he registered 10 sacks. Afterwards, he would play as a coverage linebacker for the rest of his time in Baltimore. This included Season 8, where he deflected 16 passes, and Season 9, where he deflected 15 passes, intercepted 2 of them, and was named to his second pro bowl. His production declined to 80 tackles, 3 sacks, and 7 passes deflected in Season 10, but the Hawks themselves would finish 13-1 and win the Ultimus. Unfortunately, the celebration was short lived for Goodson, as he was allowed to explore free agency at season’s end.
After a successful five-year tenure at Baltimore, Goodson was seven seasons into his career and at the tail end of his prime. He was able to sign a one-year deal in free agency with the Yellowknife Wraiths for Season 11, where he put up another solid season as a coverage linebacker with a statline featuring 11 passes deflected and a pair of interceptions. For Season 12, Goodson signed another one-year deal to be a depth piece and veteran leader for the New Orleans Second Line. In his limited role, Goodson brought in another pair of interceptions, 3 passes deflected, and 2 sacks. After the end of the season, Goodson called an end to his nine season long career and retired from the NSFL as an Ultimus champion, Season 4 Defensive Rookie of the Year, and two-time pro bowler.
Although he failed to live up to the generational hype that surrounded him during the Season 4 draft, Noah Goodson did become a quality starter for an Ultimus-winning team, just not for the team that drafted him. Blackford Oakes, who was taken by the Las Vegas Legion the very next pick after Goodson, proved to be the real generational prospect in this draft. His 46 career interceptions, second all-time only to Dermot Lavelle, cement him as one of, if not the, greatest safety of all time. Oakes would go on to be the only member of the small Season 4 draft class to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Not only did the Outlaws make the wrong decision on draft day, but they only had their first overall pick for two seasons before trading him away.
S5 - The Colorado Yeti select, Carlito Crush, TE, Portland Pythons, Ohio State
The Colorado Yeti finished their awful Season 4 with a 1-13 record, putting them at the bottom of the league and awarding them the first overall draft pick. In addition to this, a pick swap with the Las Vegas Legion from the offseason prior gave the Yeti the second overall draft pick as well, because apparently, in their short time of existence, the Legion were allergic to their own first round draft picks. They had the opportunity to make this draft day a foundational moment for the rebuild to come, and the Yeti had their sights set on tight end prospect Carlito Crush.
Carlio Crush, born in the Dominican Republic before coming to the United States to play football, was one of the best offensive weapons in a dominant Ohio State offense where he would be named an All American twice in four years. No one doubted Crush’s skills or physical tools, but there were doubts that a tight end like him could truly have an impact at the professional level. Thus, he would fall to the second round of the Season 4 DSFL draft, where he would be selected by the Portland Pythons. In his DSFL season, Crush would prove all the doubters wrong. He would lead all tight ends in receiving yards, 720, and touchdowns, 4, that season, with no one even close to him in either category. Proving that Crush could still be a key part of a professional offense, the Yeti bet on his potential and selected him first overall in the Season 5 draft. They also used the second overall pick they received from Vegas to select Andre Bly Jr., a cornerback from the Kansas City Coyotes.
Crush’s transition into the Yeti’s system was far from a smooth one. Across his first two seasons, Crush caught for 617 yards and a single touchdown. Those two seasons combined failed to eclipse his single DSFL season. Granted, the Colorado Yeti finished 2-12 and 0-14 respectively in those seasons and had the league’s worst passing offense in both of them, but this level of production was a let down for those who expected more from a player of Crush’s talents. Sensing a chance to buy low, the Orange County Otters, fresh off of winning three straight Ultimus Bowls, reached out to the Yeti in the Season 7 offseason with the goal of trading for the former first overall pick. The Otters would indeed acquire Carlito Crush from the Yeti, in exchange for their current tight end, Steven O’Sullivan, recent trade acquisition defensive lineman Dental Dam, and their third round pick in the Season 9 draft. The Yeti could have gotten additional picks in this trade, a first and a second, but the conditions attached to them did not come into fruition.
Now an Orange County Otter and catching passes from one of the greatest quarterbacks in league history, Mike Boss, Carlito Crush’s performance immediately improved in Season 7, where he caught for 772 yards and 3 touchdowns and made the pro bowl for the first time in his career. However, the Otters coaching staff believed there was a way that Crush could continue to improve. They began training Crush to make the position swap to wide receiver. There had always been some that believed that Carlito Crush could make the change to become a wide out. His critics believed that his size would limit him from competing at that position, but others believed he had more than enough speed to make it work. Starting in Season 8, Crush would show them how right the Otters were with this position swap. In this season, Crush’s stats would explode to 1205 receiving yards and 4 touchdowns. Crush would make it to his second pro bowl, and never look back.
Carlito Crush would spend the next 8 seasons at the wide receiver position, spending all but one of them with Orange County. Across this stretch, he would finish with less than 1000 receiving yards only twice in Seasons 11 and 15, with these seasons also being the only seasons in which he missed out on the pro bowl. In Season 10, the only season he spent away from Orange County after being traded to the New Orleans Second Line in the final year of his contract for a second round pick, Crush recorded 1425 receiving yards, only five behind the league leader, and 6 touchdowns. The season prior, however, will go down as Crush’s best. He recorded a league leading 1532 receiving yards and a whopping 17 touchdowns. That metric of 17 touchdowns in a single season is still tied for second place all-time to this day. This was also during a time that the season was only 14 games long, so Crush was averaging more than one touchdown per game. Crush’s Season 9 performance would win him the award for the league’s Most Valuable Player, making him the first former first overall pick to win the award. While the individual awards rolled in for Crush, it wouldn’t be until Seasons 12 and 13 that the Orange County Otters would be able to win their 4th and 5th Ultimus Bowls, but for Crush, who had dreamed of the moment he would be crowned a champion since he discovered the sport of football while watching the television with his father in Santo Domingo, it was well worth the wait. He would call an end to his eleven-season long career after Season 15, retiring as a two-time Ultimus champion, a league MVP, and a seven-time pro bowler. Four years later, he would be part of the Season 19 Hall of Fame class after garnering all but one of the fifteen votes.
However, it’s Crush’s Season 13 Ultimus win that deserves extra attention. It was a game where Orange County’s legendary quarterback, Mike Boss, played uncharacteristically poorly, throwing two interceptions. Boss would also throw a pair of touchdowns, one of these being a 13 yard pass to Carlito Crush. The Otters would go on to just barely win Ultimus XIII by a score of 24-21. Therefore, it can be reasonably argued that without Carlito Crush in the lineup, the Orange County Otters would have lost that Ultimus Bowl, leaving it for their opponents to claim. Their opponents that year were none other than the team that had scraped and clawed their way out of the basement: the team desperate to put all of those seasons of suffering behind them: the team desperate for the validation that an Ultimus victory would bring them: The Colorado Yeti.
Watching Carlito Crush’s greatness from afar, the team that originally drafted him, the Colorado Yeti, could not have been satisfied with their return in the trade that sent him away. The conditions that could have netted them an additional first and second round pick did not come to fruition, the third round pick did not amount to anything, Steven O’Sullivan played for two seasons in Colorado where he caught for 900 yards and 2 touchdowns before leaving in free agency to join the Philadelphia Liberty, and Dental Dam also only stayed in Colorado for two seasons, contributing 9 tackles for loss and a pair of sacks before departing for the same team as O’Sullivan. It is for this reason that this pick can be considered a failure for the Yeti. By all means, they knocked it out of the park on draft day. Not only were they right that Carlito Crush was a special talent, but do you remember that they also had the second overall pick and used it to draft cornerback Andre Bly Jr.? He would also become a hall of fame player. There were only three hall of fame members in this draft class, and the Yeti drafted two of them with the other one being a kicker. The Yeti had a fantastic Season 5 draft class, but every time they look back upon it they will be tormented by visions of what could have been. If they had kept Carlito Crush and allowed him to play under their eventual star quarterback Micycle McCormick and alongside Howard Miller and James Bishop that might have been enough to get them over the hump and bring home that Ultimus. But alas, it was not to be. Carlito Crush was everything the Colorado Yeti wanted out of their first overall pick and more, but for another team.
RE: The History of the First Overall Pick: Part 1 - NylarthePhoenix - 03-26-2024
Thank you to anyone who read this whole thing. This is my first time posting a media piece of this size, so please let me know if you have any feedback!
RE: The History of the First Overall Pick: Part 1 - WALDO - 03-26-2024
DERMOT MENTIONED!!!!! REAL DERMOT FANS TURN UP!!!
RE: The History of the First Overall Pick: Part 1 - manicmav36 - 03-26-2024
This is great. Clearly, you put a lot of research and thought into this. Keep it up!
RE: The History of the First Overall Pick: Part 1 - lock180 - 03-26-2024
Am Intrigued. Do want more.
RE: The History of the First Overall Pick: Part 1 - 37thchamber - 03-27-2024
This is great media.
My only criticism, if you can call it that, is that you haven't hyped Dermot Lavelle enough... believe it or not.
Looking forward to the next instalment
RE: The History of the First Overall Pick: Part 1 - Pat - 03-27-2024
Okay oddly enough I was coming here to make the same comment as 37th. Dermot is in many circles the defensive GOAT of the ISFL (and is easily on the league's Mt Rushmore).